Fraud

Produced in Hackney, in London’s East End, as part of the Loop collective, this five-piece group’s members fulfilled while their studies at London’s Royal Academy of Music. These are Adam Allsopp (b. 4 June 1981; saxophone/clarinet), Philip Hochstrate (b. 30 Might 1977, Germany; keyboards), Stian Westerhus (b. 2 Apr 1979, Norway; electric guitar), Tim Giles (b. 3 Apr 1980, Eyes, Suffolk, Britain; drums/electrical percussion), and Ben Reynolds (b. 24 January 1978, Nassau, Bahamas; drums). The music group’s line-up also contains floating bass players. Scams attracted attention on the 2006 Cheltenham Jazz Celebration and in 2007 the group was nominated for the BBC Jazz Award for Greatest Album and gained the Ronnie Scott Award as UK Newcomer, while Allsopp was nominated for the BBC Jazz Award as Increasing Star. Furthermore to his use Scams, Allsopp spent some time working with Graham Collier, Richard Fairhurst, Brian Irvine and Polar Keep, while Giles in addition has worked thoroughly with Fairhurst and in addition with Stan Sulzmann, Julian Argüelles as well as the Orb. Scams performs an exciting mixture of post-rock pop and modern digital jazz with significant technical skill, frequently cloaked liberally in offbeat humour. Its improvisations are daring and frequently demanding of viewers, but remain available in large component through their commitment and relatively anarchic musical wit. The group’s materials, mostly constructed by Allsopp and Giles, generally collaboratively, contains ‘Insect’, ‘Girafitti’, ‘Voodoo Tooth’, ‘Laundry Theater’, ‘Incorrect Human brain’ and ‘Secret Box’.